Pat Dugdale, Wellington’s new Field Officer for the Deaf, knows what she wants for her deaf proteges and she knows how to get it.
From bitter personal experience she knows the tragedy of extreme loss and has had the education and experience to know best how to help others similarly afflicted to survive in our hearing world.
Pat contracted meningitis when she was nine — it left her completely deaf. It was sheer character and determination that got her through and after completing her schooling at a grammar school for the deaf in Berkshire, England, she graduated BA with honours in English from Manchester University.
She has been married for 25 years and has three children — Magaret (24) a lawyer, Jane (22) a nurse at Wellington Hospital, and John (19) who is in the Royal Air Force in England.
Her work involves personal social service for the deaf and liaison with numerous agencies and institutions on behalf of the deaf.
The deaf association, formed in 1978, has pressed for the News for the Deaf television programme, advised the Government select committee on the production of the invaluable booklet Deafness — the Invisible Handicap, sent delegates to congresses of the deaf in Bulgaria and Rome, made deaf telephones available, started a scholarship fund for outstanding deaf students to study overseas and established communication centres with its own field officers.
The scholarship fund is close to Pat’s heart. Reports from the United States say that the first scholarship winner, Stephen Leach of Auckland is more than proving its worth at Gallaudet College in Washington.
Getting the television news programme once a week was an achievement but Pat is only one of many who says it is unsatisfactory.
“It’s not news… it’s days old,” she said. “Deaf people are not morons. They understand and value what is news and I would like to see something similar to the Australian and United States method of daily presentation of the news with two presenters… one for the hearing people and one, using total communication for the deaf.”
A problem concerning Pat is the number of young deaf people seeking her help for accommodation. While this is a widespread problem anyway, it has assumed tragic proportions for young deaf people and in Wellington she is working with the relevant authorities to get a home for them established.
Pat says, however, that the biggest problem facing the deaf is communication.
